Ambassadors- Marie Yovanovitch

Posted on October 11, 2019 by Pat Lang

MY

 Ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president.  If Trump pressed State to dismiss the woman ambassador to the Ukraine, he was merely being polite. 

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34 Responses to Ambassadors- Marie Yovanovitch

  1. J says:
    October 11, 2019 at 6:57 pm

    In a place close to the Ukraine, aka Russia, POTUS Trump has nominated Pompeo deputy, John Sullivan to be U.S. Ambassador to Russia.

  2. Inquiring Mind says:
    October 11, 2019 at 9:23 pm

    Marie Yovanovitch was a career ambassador nominated to the post in 2016. She seems to have promoted the U.S. position faithfully in regard to Ukraine regardless of whether one agrees with that position. It is interesting the Department of State did not register disapproval of her dismissal from what little one can obtain from mainstream media.
    Was she a victim in the ongoing battle of the oligarchs ? I wonder about the condition of our dedicated corps of career professionals and have the unsubstantiated feeling alternative channels ( other agencies )are now the prime use of presidents in pursuit of their agendas.

  3. Fred says:
    October 11, 2019 at 10:08 pm

    There is probably a great deal of professional dead wood that should be cleared out of the State Department.

  4. PeterHug says:
    October 11, 2019 at 10:55 pm

    True enough – and at some level, Presidents serve at the pleasure of Congress.

  5. turcopolier says:
    October 11, 2019 at 11:53 pm

    Peterhug
    That is not true. This is not a parliamentary system of government. A judgment of malfeasance by both houses is required to remove a president or anyone else from office.

  6. turcopolier says:
    October 12, 2019 at 12:00 am

    Inquiring Mind
    “the Department of State did not register disapproval of her dismissal” How would they do that? Hold a press conference and denounce the president? They are altogether the president’s subordinates.

  7. oldman22 says:
    October 12, 2019 at 12:21 am

    I remember when JFK appointed Chester Bowles Ambassador to India. JFK wanted to remove Chet from DC because Chet was the only one who advised him NOT to invade Cuba.
    The President does not have to say why he appoints or removes any ambassador, it is the President’s job.

  8. oldman22 says:
    October 12, 2019 at 12:45 am

    Should have mentioned that the Senate must confirm appointments of ambassadors.

  9. turcopolier says:
    October 12, 2019 at 1:07 am

    odman22
    Yes, but the president can fire them at will for anything or nothing. Because Yovanovich is a civil servant she could be removed from the position but not from her employment without a “due process.”

  10. Bubba Schwartz says:
    October 12, 2019 at 2:17 am

    From what I have read, Yovanovitch was publicly disrespectful of the President. I have also read that she in some way blocked certain Ukraine officials from obtaining US visas. The article further stated that in 2016 she presented the Ukraine government with a “do not prosecute” list. Of Canadian origin; a reliable Obama/Biden firewall?

  11. ted richard says:
    October 12, 2019 at 7:03 am

    at most she is merely punctuation in a long sentence, of no more importance than a missing comma which renders the reading mildly awkward but the meaning unchanged.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Yovanovitch
    i also suspect ‘ambassador’ was her day job, not who she worked for.

  12. JSoban says:
    October 12, 2019 at 7:20 am

    Here’s an interesting article from far-left journalist Matt Taibbi.

    https://taibbi.substack.com/p/were-in-a-permanent-coup?fbclid=IwAR3_NSyB8V7uXYjZbSNh0IZ3NgRlyWl0AjVG_hFyH5PVUZL2zSe9iHo-nB4
    We’re in a permanent coup
    Americans might soon wish they just waited to vote their way out of the Trump era
    I’ve lived through a few coups. They’re insane, random, and terrifying, like watching sports, except your political future depends on the score.
    The kickoff begins when a key official decides to buck the executive. From that moment, government becomes a high-speed head-counting exercise. Who’s got the power plant, the airport, the police in the capital? How many department chiefs are answering their phones? Who’s writing tonight’s newscast?…

  13. scott s. says:
    October 12, 2019 at 9:21 am

    The first impeachment was over this exact issue. The Republicans argued that if “advise and consent” was needed to appoint, it was also needed to remove. In the Senate trial, Johnson’s managers made the point that Stanton had been appointed during Lincoln’s first term and thus was a “holdover” not subject to the tenure of office, though I think the Senate vote was more a political statement than a legal reading of the removal power of the President.

  14. The Beaver says:
    October 12, 2019 at 9:59 am

    Of Canadian origin; a reliable Obama/Biden firewall?
    Born in Canada-moved to US when she was 3.
    Both parents were from Ukraine .

  15. turcopolier says:
    October 12, 2019 at 10:22 am

    JSoban
    i don’t see what makes Matt Taibbi a “far left” person. Is it that he is of Palestinian ancestry?

  16. Don Schmeling says:
    October 12, 2019 at 10:38 am

    Wasn’t JFK’s father Joe made ambassador to England because FDR wanted him out of the way and out of the USA?

  17. ex PFC Chuck says:
    October 12, 2019 at 11:24 am

    I was about to say, “Ah ha! a Banderite!” however a quick glance at her Wikipedia entry says her parents were Russian-Serbian and that she “She grew up speaking Russian.” Perhaps it’s not so simple.”

  18. Terence Gore says:
    October 12, 2019 at 11:29 am

    Remember all of the State Department “unmaskings” that were taking place? Hundreds of unmaskings assigned to U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, and yet no-one could identify who was doing them?
    “One of the significant changes between the Collyer report (covering 2016) and the Boasberg report (covering 2017) was an institutional inability to track who was doing the actual database searches. Some internal process was modified to create IC anonymity.
    Well, against the backdrop of Ambassador Yovanovitch in 2017 and 2018 “monitoring” American persons in/around her Ukraine interests; and considering all of these database search queries identified by Boasberg in 2017 and 2018 “incidentally” captured Americans; perhaps this explains how the Yovanovitch “monitoring” was taking place.”
    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/10/12/fisa-judges-collyer-and-boasberg-both-identified-nsa-databases-used-for-political-surveillance/#more-173475
    way out of my league in regards to Yovanovitch. I suspect FISA was being routinely abuse and still is.

  19. Factotum says:
    October 12, 2019 at 11:38 am

    One more Obama drama queen we are far better off without.

  20. TedBuila says:
    October 12, 2019 at 11:41 am

    Soban’s “far left” opinion hmm…so it goes. For me Matt Taibbi and his dad wear 12s

  21. ex PFC Chuck says:
    October 12, 2019 at 11:45 am

    Attempting to close out the italics. Did it work? In any case I strongly second the recommendation of JSoban’s link.
    I also agree that Taibbi is not far left. I would put him in the same bin as myself, a social democrat. This is what the Democratic Party used to be for the six decades before Bill Clinton and the Democratic Leadership Council crowd sold it to the financial sector. That a relatively well-informed person can regard Taibbi & the ideas of social democracy as “far left” indicates how far out of whack the Overton Window has been moved rightward.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Yovanovitch
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window

  22. SAC Brat says:
    October 12, 2019 at 12:15 pm

    Closing the italics gate

  23. Diana C says:
    October 12, 2019 at 12:25 pm

    This is probably a naive question coming from someone who has absolutely no knowledge of the inner dealings in DC and who gets her information from television news and from the Internet: how many of Obama’s appointees were also approved by George Soros? Or is George Soros, the Bilderberger Society less of the threat than we out here in the Middle think they are based on what we find in emails and Internet political sites?

  24. Fred says:
    October 12, 2019 at 12:27 pm

    Beaver,
    “born in Cananda is rather irrelevant. The idea she is another Sally Yates out to steer the foreign policy of the US back to the course the left wants is not surprising though. I’m sure she’ll have a nice university or foundation sinecure to tide her over in her dotterage.

  25. Fred says:
    October 12, 2019 at 12:28 pm

    Terence,
    All this ongoing fisa abuse implies the left has been spying on Rudy Guliani for a couple of years via various foreign nationals like the two just indicted.

  26. Fred says:
    October 12, 2019 at 12:29 pm

    Ted,
    every comment is moderated, you don’t need to keep posting it.

  27. JSoban says:
    October 12, 2019 at 1:18 pm

    I base the far-left description of him on having read his stuff in The Nation and Rolling Stone and his regular appearances on Democracy Now! and MSNBC. I don’t think far-left is a pejorative and is meant to separate him from the univocally lying mainstream liberal left. I have a lot of respect for those outside of this current liberal political cult. In addition to Taibbi I have respect for: Aaron Mate, Tulsi Gabbard, Max Blumenthal, Stephen Cohen, Michael Tracey, et al.).

  28. Terence Gore says:
    October 12, 2019 at 4:12 pm

    I guess we’re finally living the dictum “Live your live like someone is watching you’

  29. The Beaver says:
    October 12, 2019 at 4:28 pm

    Sometimes it is hard to pinpoint the true nationality or origin of the people from Mittel Europa.
    Even the term Mittel Europa is subject to disagreement or discussion depending on one’s ethnicity in that region or whether one can trace back where his ancestors have migrated from.
    She has as much Canadian origin as Ted Cruz 🙂

  30. Inquiring Mind says:
    October 13, 2019 at 1:04 am

    Thanks for the gentle reminder. Age is not kind to some people. Your clarity of response to oldman22 regarding due process as a civil servant is what I was thinking about.

  31. Fred says:
    October 13, 2019 at 12:38 pm

    Terence,
    It took a liberal democrat to make that a reality.

  32. h says:
    October 13, 2019 at 12:45 pm

    Diana C – interesting question regarding Soros. As I clearly recall, following a Bilderberg meeting in Chantilly, VA, Obama was whisked away in a private jet w/Soros on board leaving Hillary behind. Many then suggested Obama was the chosen one so to speak.
    I also recall Obama appointing his top bundlers and donors to serve in Ambassadorships rather than promoting from the diplomatic corp.
    Lastly, this Ukrainian NABU/Stynik anti-corruption agency and the U.S. Embassy ties needs to be investigated thoroughly. It is my understanding Mr. Soros’ anti-corruption NGO in Ukraine was behind Biden’s urging for Petroshenko to establish Ukraine’s anti-corruption unit aka NABU. It is also my understanding that an employee or more from Soros’ NGO staffed the NABU. This detail can be found in Shokin’s affidavit, if my memory serves correctly.
    Why has there been no mention by any U.S. corporate media of Shokin’s affidavit which states clearly he was investigating Soros and his NGO? Biden apparently made certain both Burisma and the Soros investigation were shut down.
    So, I’m thinking Diana C, the White House and State Department likely became Soros’ private fiefdom.

  33. Keith Harbaugh says:
    October 15, 2019 at 12:40 pm

    Interesting report from JW:
    “JW INVESTIGATES IF OUSTED UKRAINE AMBASSADOR ORDERED STATE DEPT. TO MONITOR JOURNALISTS, TRUMP ALLIES”

    Judicial Watch is investigating if prominent conservative figures, journalists and persons with ties to President Donald Trump were unlawfully monitored by the State Department in Ukraine at the request of ousted U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, an Obama appointee. Yovanovitch testified “in secret” to the House impeachment inquiry against Trump on Friday, October 11, 2019. Her “secret” testimony was leaked to the New York Times during the hearing.
    Judicial Watch has obtained information indicating Yovanovitch may have violated laws and government regulations by ordering subordinates to target certain U.S. persons using State Department resources. Yovanovitch reportedly ordered monitoring keyed to the following search terms: Biden, Giuliani, Soros and Yovanovitch. Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the State Department and will continue gathering facts from government sources.
    Prior to being recalled as ambassador to Ukraine in the spring Yovanovitch reportedly created a list of individuals who were to be monitored via social media and other means. Ukraine embassy staff made the request to the Washington D.C. headquarters office of the department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. After several days, Yovanovitch’s staff was informed that the request was illegal and the monitoring either ceased or was concealed via the State Department Global Engagement Center, which has looser restrictions on collecting information…

    See also sundance’s reprint, with comments of the JW announcement.

  34. Diana C says:
    October 17, 2019 at 10:53 am

    Thank you for your response to my question. I am late getting back to your very helpful answer.
    Whenever there is a discussion that includes actions by the State–The Secretary of State and all–I become nervous. I like feeling that I am a citizen of the United States, not a citizen of some nebulous, nefarious international group of extremely wealthy and possibly evil people.
    I am not saying your reply eased my mind about that, but did make me feel more inclined always to trust my heart and my gut reactions.

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